German Scientists Complete World’s Largest and Most Detailed 3D Building Map

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich completed the GlobalBuildingAtlas project and made it freely accessible. It is the world’s most detailed 3D building map, covering 97% of all structures, with data on approximately 2.75 billion buildings.

The project represents a new stage in machine learning technologies for analyzing satellite images. Researchers used reference data from 168 cities in Europe, North America, and Oceania to calculate building heights and volumes, turning flat images into valuable statistical information.

Understanding building volumes is essential for accurate urban studies. For example, Africa ranks second after Asia in building numbers (540 million) but only 117 billion cubic meters in volume due to low-rise structures. Rapid urbanization in Asia has led to 1.27 trillion cubic meters across 1.22 billion buildings.

Other insights: Finland’s built volume is six times greater than Greece’s; Niger’s per capita volume is 27 times lower than the global average. The project is highly valued, providing a real tool for analyzing urbanization rates. The database currently contains 800,000 satellite images, with the option to upload more.